Salvatore Cardoni
Sal holds a Political Science degree from the George Washington University. He's written about all things environment since 2007.

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china skyscraper on building
A fake mountain and trees seen atop the upscale residential building in Beijing. (Photo: Simon Song)

I’m all for planting more trees in smog-choked cities or for cutting urban sprawl off at the knees by encouraging designers to build up rather than out, but this?

This is bonkers—to say nothing of being illegal and possibly deadly.

Chinese officials have given a well-connected, eccentric rich guy 15 days to tear down a sprawling, two-story “mountain villa” he spent six years unlawfully constructing atop a 26-story residential building in Beijing.

How to Make a 1,000-Foot Skyscraper Disappear Into Thick Air

Since 2007, neighbors have fruitlessly pleaded with local cops to remove the $2.4 million, 8,600-square-foot, tree-covered rock house. Some complained that the gaudy crib’s weight had caused cracks in their apartment walls, allowing rainwater to seep in during storms. Others wondered what would happen to the structure’s boulders if there were an earthquake? (How do you scream “look out below!” in Mandarin?)

“A lot of people have moved out from the top floors. They were afraid. They sold their apartments and got out,” said Zhang Li, to CNN. He lives in an apartment on the 25th floor, one floor below the construction.

But then Chinese social media secured photos of the villa last week. This kickstarted a melange of negative press coverage, resulting in Monday’s demolition order by the government.

I’d like to think that the man behind this fortress madness, Zhang Biqing, simply let his ambition outrun his good sense. But then again, we are talking about a Charles Foster Kane wannabe who put thousands of neighbors at risk just to scratch his Xanadu itch, so I’m guessing he probably wasn’t very considerate to begin with.

Check back in half a month’s time to see if local administrators—from time to time, government officials in China have been known to dabble in corruption—actually make Biqing remove his rarified air stone palace. After all, as he says—wink, wink—it’s only a small “ornamental garden."

Friday August 16, 2013, 2:52 pm
I think it looks kind of nice sitting atop that building; but, if it was illegal to build it in 2007, why wasn't something done to stop it before so much time or materials was invested in it? What a waste.

Friday August 16, 2013, 3:23 pm
Perhaps they waited so they could all make some money off of selling him the building material and the workers got wages. A few carefully paid off officials to look the other way gave him the ability to keep going. If I know of anything about the Chinese they don't like to be made to look foolish, so when this became more widespread I'm sure some higher ups said, get it torn down. We might never know who else might of lost their jobs in this or be sent to the nearest We Make Cheap Goods Here For Walmart Prison.